For a tanky Tel I'm not sure I would use Gonk. The point being you are essentially making it less likely to use his ability so you may as well use another ship. Sure you have the benefit of regenerating after you revive, but you have spent a lot of the game trying to avoid that. I know it is enticing to imagine a scenario where you would end up back at 5 or 6 HPs but it is not all that likely to happen.

Why would you wait that long to regen? Once Tel's ability kicks in you are back to having 1 or 2 remaining hit points depending on if you took a HU or not. Instead of being dead you are nearly dead. What if your opponent has more attackers and you don't live to the next round?

The value here is in just how many bonus hit points you buy yourself with hull and/or Gonk. That's the way it looks on paper right now. Who knows where we end up in terms of a near optimum setup. We probably won't know for sure for a good 2-3 months when something emerges during Regionals. Or maybe someone shows up with a list using it a certain way at Gencon that changes how everyone wants to play it from that point on.

Also, its not hard to stack up at least 3-4 shield tokens at the start

Time will Tel

Be honest: this entire thread was just a set up for this joke, wasn't it?

Tel w/ Determination, Greedo, Salvaged Astromech, Hull upgrade 37 points (add title to taste).

Ooh, I like that. With the title, of course.

If "Gonk" is going to hog your actions, Predator and Glitterstim can both be useful.

Tel Trevura (30)

+ Punishing One (12)

+ Hull Upgrade (3)

+ Predator (3)

+ Glitterstim (2)

+ "Gonk" (2)

+/- Unhinged Astromech (1)

If you leave off the UA, there's just enough room for 4x Binayres or 2x TLT Y's.

I think I'm liking the idea of making Dengar tanky over Tel. Dengar + P1 + Gonk + EI + Unhinged + VI isn't too steep at 52. EI + Unhinged lets you use Gonk consistently, and EI doesn't compete with Hull Upgrade like it does on Tel. At PS 11 and a large barrel roll you can be a pretty good arc dodger, plus Dengar's ability encourages people to go after the rest of your list first, hopefully leaving Dengar for the endgame with a big pile of tokens on Gonk. Not a lot of dice modification for your attacks, though, unfortunately.

For Dengar its going to be Predator all the way for me. That or Lone Wolf but I prefer to keep my attackers closer together. If you are triggering his ability you have to be able to consistently mod dice.

EI + Gonk may prove necessary to keep him alive long enough but I really want to give EU a shot. Execute a white 2 S-loop and then boost or barrel roll into the spot you want to be. He will be extremely slippery with that dial and at PS 9 can do some arc dodging of his own. EU also means Dengar will be a great PWT hunter. If he is chasing them down and can reposition to get them in his arc he can be making 2 attacks to their 1.

I think he's going to require plenty of finesse to not get obliterated straight away but he will be very dangerous. What he gets paired with will be interesting.

I would go so far as to call Gonk far superior to R2D2 crew.

I am so in love with R5-P8 and was thinking of him as an auto-include for any Jumpmaster but after thinking about a Gonk + PTL/EI I think a better option might be the Unhinged Astromech. Set up and planning will always be a factor for a Jumpmaster so you should be making good use of the 6 green maneuvers on your dial as is but the opportunity to increase that to 9 green maneuvers including a 3 bank to the right looks awfully appealing.

You say 9 greens with Unhinged Astromech but I see 10. There's a white sloop mind you! How's that?

I like the Idea of a Suicide Tel myself

Expose, Hull Upgrade, K4, Title, Glitterstem, R5-P8 (57 pts) run it with 3 bug zappers

As for a Fat Tel though I think I would try to run it like this,

Wired, Experimental Interface, Gonk, Title, Glitterstim, Unhinged Astromech (51 pts)

After a while you might need to start popping Both Gonk actions a turn so wired will help a little with surviving. Astromech for better greens and clearing stress when gonk isn't needed. You could also use an ability and EI for adding/using gonk. To me a fat Tel will almost always have a stress.

Honestly I think putting too many points into a ship with R5-P9 is like putting too many points into Biggs. R5-P8 is obviously strongest in the end game when you're taking the least amount of shots so the ship carrying him will likely be a huge target priority. If that's the case you want them to cost as few points as possible while still being able to perform their main functions.

Personally planning on trying something like this:

Tel Trevura 30 (38)

Lone Wolf 2

R5-P8 3

Hull Upgrade 3

Kaa'To Leeachos 15 (16)

Draw Their Fire 1

Syndicate Thug 18 (23) x2

Ion Cannon Turret 5

BTL-A4 Y-Wing 0

Kaa'To is merely there as filler but also has DtF to make your opponent worried that Tel might be tankier than he's worth to engage first. This may seem weird in combination with Lone Wolf but that's there again as an end game threat, if he is left til the end he's more powerful because of it. The Y-wings are replaceable with other ships but ion warthogs are my favourite tanky ships that still pack a punch, and their added control via the ion can also be a huge nuisance.

edit: Biggest weakness here is facing a regening ship at then end like Corran (or Poe, etc) who can shake off R5's damage each round while you're left with a ship that isn't the greatest offensively, but then again most ships are bad 1v1 them anyway.

Probably fairly tough match up against Brobots too...

I'm not sure what the right EPT is, but I feel pretty sure it's not PTL. You don't want to be forced in one direction to clear stress, I think.

This is the same design team that doesn't allow SLAM and bomb because that would be overpowered, but will allow you to green on a 3 bank with a fat turret. Or hell, green on your entire dial with Kanan.

I'm not sure what the right EPT is, but I feel pretty sure it's not PTL. You don't want to be forced in one direction to clear stress, I think.

The game designers failed yet again at accounting for obvious combos that reduce all downsides of powerful abilities. You just put unhinged and 3 bank green in either direction every turn. So much for an asymmetric dial.

This is the same design team that doesn't allow SLAM and bomb because that would be overpowered, but will allow you to green on a 3 bank with a fat turret. Or hell, green on your entire dial with Kanan.

Because having green banks is so devastatingly OP when you don't have access to three hards and only one of your other hards is green... in one direction. Unhinged isn't exactly a trap, but Jumpmasters aren't going to win the PtL turn fight the way Rainbow Dash can.